Tune up Windows

When playing games competitively, it's extremely important to keep your computer running at it's best. One of the best ways to keep your computer's performance high is by giving it a little bit of regular maintenance and every so often, tune up windows. There's a great article on Tweak3d that goes over just how to tune up Windows and how to clean up unnecessary processes.

Here's an excerpt:

"The visual effects, that is animations, shadows, and extra Windows XP polished interface, eat up CPU and memory (especially on older PCs). Hit the Windows and Pause/Break keys or right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Navigate to the Advanced tab, then click the first Settings box. Very slow (<500 MHz) PCs should definitely have this set for Best Performance. Most PC users won't notice or care if the following are the only options left enabled..."